YPP Presidential Candidate Condemn INEC postponement of elections calls for over hauling of INEC. Hopeful, that Nigerians will elect him President

In this exclusive interview with 

Nigerian Notch, the YPP Presidential candidate lampooned INEC for falling in it's responsibility and gave insight of what the norm should be in a democracy.

Sir, the last minute postponement of elections, hours to the election by INEC, what is your take on it?

The last minute postponement of the elections, without even the courtesy of informing Nigerians 48hrs or 72hrs to the time,but people work up preparing to vote,and only to hear that they will not vote is utter disrespect, and shows the incompetence, occasioned by performance failure that INEC has shown by this act. This calls for a consequence. The Chairman of INEC must resign. In a civilized country, this cannot happen. This country has become a banana republic, and we must stop our slide into anarchy. How can this happen, #640 Billion budget, four years of notice, that INEC will conduct another election and at the very last minute, this is what we get. This is why we need a new order and new forms of doing things in the country. INEC has shown, that our institutions in the country are unable to perform, they never do anything within time frames, which is major cause of corruption in the country. I am sad, look at the corps members across the country who were transported to help conduct the polls,many of them are stranded today,sleeping on floors all over the country, in homes they did not know, how can we treat our citizens like this,and people are sitting at INEC earning a salary, whatever the reasons they claim, which they said its logistics, should be taken care of so that this election will be conducted. For me I don't think they are ready for the election, they can only be seem to be ready when this election is conducted. INEC can only be accessed at the point of performance, and that is for them to conduct the election.

The PDP has alleged that the Presidency under the APC wants to rig the election, do you have any information on that, as a third force in this contest.

I don't know where they got the information. But I know and believe that the Presidency of the APC are adopting desperate efforts to retain power against the wish of Nigerians. The APC are aware that the people of Nigeria are going to vote them out,and even this delay will not save them. Kingsley Mohaglu will be elected as the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and will be sworn in on 29th May 2019. YPP, will win the election, because people are tired of the same old APC and PDP. It is clear to everyone that these two political parties can't manage an institution to conduct elections successfully, so its hard time we made away with them.

Your recent endorsement by the Noble Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, can you say it has a force on your becoming the next President of Nigeria.

I think that the fact,  Professor Wole Soyinka endorsed me for the presidency is historic. It was a unique and a powerful endorsement, coming from a personality like that, whose place in the world and Nigeria is revered for his influence on the elite as well as the grassroots, because of his cultural influence,as his plays and dramas are acted in the villages and everything he says, people listen carefully. I am humbled by that endorsement.

Sir, you are talking with authority that you are going to be the next President, did you consider the area you are coming from, the South East.

In the South East, there are 10 million registered voters, the Northern part of the country about 9 million registered voters of South East extraction, in the South West there is another 7 million minimum of South East extraction, that is at least 25 million voters, that tells you that the myth that the South East is a minority in this country is a joke. You know there are those of them from the South East who do not realize that the South East as a political voting bloc can make or mar any Presidential Candidate in this election. I ask, why then do the people in the South East feel as of they are politically inferior in Nigeria. This is because the political elite of the Igbo's are afflicted by slave mentality,many Igbo politicians have the mentality of slaves, they have lost their confidence, they are filled with inferiority complex, they feel that they have to be follow follow. I don't have political inferiority complex, I am a citizen of Nigeria, entitled to run for the presidency of Nigeria, nobody should wait for his or her turn in this country to become President, there is no turn. Every Nigerian has a constitutional right to seek the presidency, if you are qualified for it and you have a vision to drive it.

How do you feel about the calling off of the boycott of election by Nnamdi Kanu's IPOB.

I have always felt that the boycott of election by any group of Nigerians will not be in the interest of the country, and also will not be in the interest of the youths,because if you don't participate in the electoral process they will continue to rule you with impunity against your wish. I am happy that Nnamdi Kanu's IPOB finally came to the realization that the boycott was just inflicting self damage. I urge voters in the south east and in Nigeria to come out massively and vote for the best candidate who will take Nigeria to the promised land. I am running not to be vice president as south easterns are not born to be attached as second class citizens in this country, we should not continue fooling ourselves. Let Nigerians vote for a Nigerian who can do the job. Do not vote for people because you think they can win,but you know they cannot deliver on his or her mandate. Vote for the person who has a globally experience and has worked to improve other economics. Vote for the person that will provide electricity, schools, hospitals, jobs, a candidate with open doors to the many problems of the Nigerian economy.

Sir, you left the banking industry to join politics, can we really know what motivated you to delve into politics after having given your best in the public sector.

Well of course you know I served a term of office of five years as deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) before then, most of my career was in the United Nations for 17 years and after my time at the central bank, I actually did not go into politics directly, I became a professor, a distinguished Professor of practice in International Business and economic policy at the Tufts University in Maschetuess USA. I came back in 2017, and set up my Tink Tank, the institute for governance and economic transformation (IGET) then in February 2018, I launched my bid for Presidency. Now why am I running for President? I am running for the presidency because the old and recycled politicians as represented in the PDP & APC cannot take Nigeria into the future. Poverty is increasing, unemployment is increasing, population is rising and of is beyond my imagination that anybody who is seeing these trends can make an argument for APC & PDP. The truth is,our future is headed into a nasty crash if any of these two political parties continues to lead Nigeria. I decided to offer Nigeria a different kind of leadership, a transformational leadership that is based on knowledge and experience of public policy,leadership that is based on a vision for Nigeria, in terms of nation building, economic transformation, effective foreign policy,leadership that is based on a passionate commitment to the future of our young people in this country, working with our women as equal partners,securing our lives and property, as well as breaking the backbone of poverty by creating jobs, for our youths. That is why I am running for presidency. I am also running for president, because I discovered that although I have been a successful technocrat, being a technocrat is not enough to transform Nigeria, the only people who can transform Nigeria are political leaders who have the legitimacy of elected authority. But it is unfortunate that the politicians we are electing are not leaders, which is the case, they are politicians but not leaders and these politicians are in politics just because of their stomach, politics to them is the biggest business in Nigeria today,and that is why a lot of politicians are in politics and not for the people. If we have a competent leader, who now has political authority, then when you combine it working with the people it brings results. This country can be transformed to be like Malaysia, China,Singapore,Brazil. These people don't have two heads, the only thing that is making us incompetent is the type of leaders we have, and the mental poverty of the leaders we have leading is today as represented by PDP & APC. We are 20 years of democracy in Nigeria and all we have achieved is to have become the poverty capital of the world, all we have achieved is that we have not moved beyond 4000 mega watts of electricity. Why should we reward the people who are responsible for the nasty state of life in Nigeria today with another term of office.

Considering the fact that YPP is a new and Young Party as the name symbolize, what is the spread of your party in Nigeria.

YPP has over 300 candidates on the ballot. 22 candidates for senate,16 candidates for governor, 55 candidates for house of Reps and over 200 candidates for state houses of assembly, in addition to myself the presidential candidate. This is a national spread for a party for a party that is relatively new. I want you know that having the age of a Methuselah is not equivalent to wisdom or effectiveness. I have just told you PDP & APC in the last 20 years failed the country. Then you have a new party like YPP, a party that represents passionate young men and women of all ages who want to do things differently.

Can you score the APC government in power

I am a professor and I grade according to performance. I grade APC F. There is no redeeming feature, they did not have a D or a C +, they had an F. Why is it an F, because of the core of the questions people set for them, the exam people set for them, they failed it,corruption, security, economy, these were the three promises they made for us and people voted for them with an exam on these three things and each one of them is a failure. Nigeria is more insecure today than it was when President Buhari came into power, Boko haram is raging, kidnapping is on the rise, including across President's Buhari's home state of Kastina, poverty is at its all time high as people are in extreme poverty and why would you know all these and still go for the PDP or APC.

What was your legacy at the CBN.

At the CBN, I lead massive reforms of the financial system. We made sure that no bank failed, we reformed the structure, we created the new banking model,which created room, for banks to be stable. We established the global banks, a national banks and a regional banks, so that it is easier to access finance. I led alot of activities in development finance that provided single interest loans to many business in the country. As deputy governor of CBN for operations, I led the reforms in the payment system that introduced the BVN, because we were frustrated that the national identity management system was not moving at the pace it should be moving so we decided to do something through the introduction of the BVN which is under our regulatory control. I made sure no bank in Nigeria failed. I made sure no depositor lost a kobo after the 2008 global world financial crisis, compared to that with the failed bank system of the 90s where people lost billions of naira in our banks. My record at the CBN was a record of success and if I could do that at the CBN, imagine me as the President. It is on record that I am the first Presidential Candidate to have nominated a woman as vice president. By God's grace we will be the first presidency to give women a proper platform in Nigeria